The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-08-27

l
is almost wholly represented by wages)
would greatly reduce the cost of produc-
ton. If harvest hands could be hired for
81 80 per day instead of So, and CORE
spending reduction made in the wages paid
to men hired by the month, it would re-
duce the cost of producing wheat from 10
to 20 per cent. And if all wages could be
reduced one-half it would cost from 30 to
40 per cent. less to produce it. Under
free trade and labor at 81 per day for har-
vest hands wheat could be produced on the
plains of Northern Dakota for from 10 to
l6 cents per bushel, the cost varying with
the yield This, of course, on large farms
where there is no more pretense of home
life than there is in rolling mill or in
cotton factory.
The large farms that are now being OPP
Grated along the Northern Pacific and
Manitoba Railroads are but infants when
compared with those of California, but the
climate and soil of Dakota and Manitoba
are so far superior for wheat growing to
those of California that 1 look at them with
peculiar interest. As l said, there is no
pretense of making pleasant home life
for the workmen who labor on those farms.
There is no eating with the farmers fami-
ly, and no love-making between handsome
harvest hands and the farmers fair daugh-
ter. No walks, no rides, no moonlight boat
rowing on winding rivers, no romantic ca
pers of any sort. All the poetry has been
knocked out of farm life on these immense
farms. 1t is business, and the workmen
are handled as roughly and unfeelingly as
laborers engaged in stone quarry. They
are fed WELL They sleep in barns or gar
ners. They are divided into gangs, as to
the work they do, in the fields, and behind
each gang foreman rides on horseback
and keeps them at work. There is no sky
larking in these fields. 1t is hard, contin-
Gus work. Selfbinding machines drawn by
three strong horses roll around and around
the wheat fields, throwing with iron arm
bound bundle of wheat every 10 feet. Be
hind the machines walk line of shockers,
a shocker to each machine. These men
have to walk as fast as the horses and bend
over and pick up a heavy bundle of wheat
every 10 feet and carry it to shock. And
behind them, also, rides a foreman to see
that they do their work promptly. And
above them blazes the fiery Dakota harvest
SUM- During threshing it is the same.
The steam thresher never tires. The men
who pitch bundles in the field have each to
pitch to a certain number of wagons. The
men who drive have to unload their wag-
ons. The men who feed the straw into
the iron-toothed mouth of the machine
have to feed all that is brought to them.
On one side of the machine the grain pours
out of spout and is loaded directly into
wagons and hauled to the garner. There
are Just sufficient men to do the work. For
II hours every day they work laboriously,
and are driven steadily by hard=faoed fore
men, tits not farming. It's the manufac-
ture of wheat which is being carried. on
The products of small farms cannot COM
pete with these so-called bonanza farms any
more successfully than the output of vii
lage blacksmith's shop could compete with
that from the Novelty Iron Works. |
think the system is detrimental to the best
interests of the country, just as monopolies
and syndicates are, but in the competitive
age in which we live, when the law of the
survival of the fittest (Which means in in
dustrial pursuits the cheapest producer) is
in full operation, think that these great
farms, which are managed as manufacture
ing industries are, will be found to be me-
essary to enable us to hold the consuming
markets of the world. They are the out
growth of competition. Where they are
established trade languishes, towns cease
TO grow, merchants are forced out of bust
ness, and schoolhouses are empty. There
are no children in that land. For month
in the Spring and for 40 days in the Sum
mer and Fall the air hanging oyer the bo-
nanza farms resounds with the hum of in
dustry. Then all is silent and the country
is desoIate until the next Spring. But
wheat has been produced cheaply, though
no happiness has followed, as it legitimate.
ly should, to the men who titled the soil.
Where do the men who handle these
immense crops of wheat come from? That
question cannot be answered accurately.
Gasselton is a squalid frontier town. 1t
consists of one main street, which faces the
railroad, and which is built up on one side
only. A back street runs parallel to the
main street, and there are two or three
short and weed grown cross streets. Cas-
selton is dirty, and when 1 first saw it,
two weeks ago, it was full of dirty, idle men.
Americans, Scandinavians, and Irishmen
swarmed along its main street, and congre-
gated in foul-smelling crowds around the
doors of saloons, where empty beer kegs
afforded seats. This crowd OF ragged, dirty,
alf.drunken men were migratory harvest
tramps, who were waiting to be hired.
Where they cone from and where they go
to is unknown to man. As harvest ap-
proaches they crawl out of freight ears
which stop at Casselton. They are seen
walking along the dusky, hot highways
which lead to this town. They arrive du-
ring the night. They slouch into town by
day. 1t matters not how or when they
arriyo, they are, with the exception of the
ScandinaYiaps, ALMOST invariably dead broke,
dirty, and hun cry About 500 Of these
migratory people arrive at Casselton in time
to assist in harvest and threshing, which
lasts about 40 days. They are paid 81 per
day. So they earn about $50 each during
the Dakota harvest They, again except
ing the Scandinavians, almost to a man
leave Casselton dead broke. They myster-
iously disappear. They are agricultural
tramps.
cHAs BILIINesLEA D. D. s. O. K. BAuGBHAE Z. D, s.